Networks enable the sharing and transmission of a wide array of resources between network elements, also called nodes. Among several topologies to physically connect nodes to each other including mesh topology, bus topology, star topology, etc., the ring topology is highly popular owing to its simple construction. One application of the ring architecture is in computer networks such as interconnecting computers and related devices within a local area network (LAN). Another substantial technology that is based on the ring architecture is the synchronous optical network (SONET) standard or the newer dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) for interconnecting nodes to each other within the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or routers in the Internet backbone or video switches/servers. Given the demands with respect to bandwidth, network availability, fault tolerance, and quality of service, the use of multiple ring architectures have emerged as a viable approach. However, the efficient and effective determination of communication paths (e.g., shortest paths) in multi-ring systems has increased in complexity, thereby hindering rapid recovery of network failures and complicating network management.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for an efficient for determining paths within a multiple ring network.